PIGS: the Achilles heel of the EU

Apparently, public servants there are paid extremely well, receive two bonuses a year, are paid extra allowances for using a computer, for speaking a foreign language and even (hold your breadth) for coming to work on time. They enjoy attractive pensions, and on the demise of a pensioner it passes on to any unmarried (even divorced) daughter.

There are many Government committees that recruit additional staff, and all are paid by the Government. It is estimated that there are more than 10,000 employed by these committees, costing 220 million Euros a year. There is a story that there still exists a committee to manage a Greek lake, Lake Kopais. Lake Kopais dried up in 1930!

Estimates are that about 40,000 women benefit from the pension system where the pension of the dead civil servant parent is transferred to them. Civil servants could opt to retire at 40 even though the normal retirement age is 60 for women and 65 for men.

Yes this is absolutely Obama's plan for the USA: A Huge voter base of parasites. "who pays" are those who do not make their living off some form of political patronage, ie, those in market economy, which is what the statist economy leaches off of.

In 2005, the National Intelligence Council prepared a prescient report warning that overextended welfare states could lead to economic crisis and possibly the collapse of the European Union sometime in the next 15 years:

The experts felt that the current welfare state is unsustainable and the lack of any economic revitalization could lead to the splintering or, at worst, disintegration of the European Union, undermining its ambitions to play a heavyweight international role.

PIGS, PIIGS and PIIGGS are acronyms that originally referred to the economies of Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain (PIGS). Since the financial crisis of 2007â2010, Ireland (PIIGS) and, more recently, the United Kingdom (PIIGGS or PIGSUK) have become associated with the term.

The experts felt that the current welfare state is unsustainable and the lack of any economic revitalization could lead to the splintering or, at worst, disintegration of the European Union, undermining its ambitions to play a heavyweight international role.

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WHich other countries, in your view, qualify as "welfare state"? Germany pays "vodka money" to people with alcohol dependency, UK pays benefits to "work shy"...